The drills involved over 100 personnel and 10 items of military and special hardware, the statement reads.

In addition to accomplishing combat training measures, the Baltic Fleet’s coastal defense troops are on constant alert to protect and defend the maritime borders and the coastline of the Kaliningrad Region, the press office stressed.

The Bastion coastal defense system with standardized Yakhont (Oniks) supersonic homing anti-ship cruise missiles went into service with the Russian troops in 2010. The Bastion is designated to strike various types of surface ships operating as part of amphibious assault formations, convoys, surface action and carrier strike groups, and also single ships and radar-contrast land targets under enemy intensive fire and electronic counter-measures.

According to the data of the International Institute for Strategic Studies, the Russian Navy currently operates over 40 Bastion coastal defense systems. Specifically, they are deployed in Crimea, on the Kotelny Island (the Novosibirsk Archipelago), in the Kaliningrad Region, in Syria and on Kamchatka.

A Bastion battalion is capable of defending a coastline stretching over 600km. The Bastion can fire Oniks missiles to a range of 500km. The firing positions can be moved away from the coastline by 200km. The system’s ammunition load can include up to 36 missiles.

Improve the Discussion

Help us make this a great place for discussion by always working to improve the discussion in some way, however small. If you are not sure your post adds to the conversation, think over what you want to say and try again later.

The topics discussed here matter to us, and we want you to act as if they matter to you, too. Be respectful of the topics and the people discussing them, even if you disagree with some of what is being said.